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Gold has the worst 12-month outlook among key commodities markets and could see falls over the coming months, according to a client survey from Credit Suisse.

The survey, published yesterday and based on responses from a poll of around 185 Credit Suisse clients, showed that 60% of investors named gold as the commodity with the worst forecast when compared with copper, crude oil and corn.

More than half of respondents expect gold to trade below $1,400 per ounce in a year’s time, down from the current $1,465 per ounce.

Credit Suisse analysts are even more bearish, with head of global commodities research Ric Deverell predicting the price could even fall below $1,000 within five years: “The next big level is going to be about $1,350 per ounce. I expect that it will get to this point quite quickly, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was in the next couple of weeks.

"In about a year’s time I expect it will be something with an “11” in front of it and in five years time quite possibly below $1,000 per ounce,” he said.

The view follows last week's prediction by Manny Roman, the chief executive of the UK’s largest listed hedge fund manager Man Group, that the price of gold could fall to $1,000.

In a keynote speech at the Financial News Hedge Fund Awards, Roman said: “There are six reasons to own gold. Four and a half of them are spurious, half is half-decent and one is a good one.”

The four reasons that Roman dismissed were that gold is a hedge against unexpected inflation; a hedge against currency fluctuations; that it was a safe haven in times of economic difficulty or hyperinflation; and that there is an equilibrium price of gold.

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Roman half-accepted the idea that gold is a hedge for very low interest rates, but he said there was not enough data to be certain.

He also gave weight to the argument that “gold is under-owned by people”.

Other findings from the Credit Suisse commodities survey showed that 53% of investors thought general commodity prices will remain at current levels, plus or minus 10%, in 12 months time. Of the remaining 47%, 16% thought prices would be at least 10% higher, 22% thought at least 10% lower and 9% said they had “no idea”.

Just under half, 43%, thought their current level of commodity investment was underweight, while 22% thought they were overweight. When asked about expectations for their levels of commodity investment over the next 12 months, 41% said they would be neutral, 34% believed they would be overweight and 21% thought they would be underweight.

--Correction: Ric Deverell's quote has been updated to reflect the fact that he predicts the price of gold to be $1,350 per ounce in the coming weeks and not $1,305 per ounce. Credit Suisse had earlier confirmed the details in the quote but has since amended.